Rabat – The UK and France have abandoned earlier plans to recognize a Palestinian state at an upcoming international conference in New York, scheduled for June 17–20. The two countries had previously hinted at using the event as a platform to announce its recognition, following lobbying from France and growing support across Europe.
Instead of immediate recognition, the UK and France are now pushing for a list of preconditions to be met before any future move, including a permanent ceasefire in Gaza, the release of Israeli captives, reforms within the Palestinian Authority, reconstruction of Gaza, and the removal of Hamas from power.
French president Emmanuel Macron had earlier described recognition as a “moral duty and political requirement,” framing it as part of a possible exchange in which Saudi Arabia might move to recognize Israel.
In recent days, France informed Israeli officials that recognition would not take place during the conference. French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot defended the reversal, calling recognition at this stage merely “symbolic” and citing France’s responsibility as a UN Security Council member to act in line with its allies.
In response, Kenneth Roth, former director of Human Rights Watch, cautioned that these conditions could become another “endless” process used to stall Palestinian statehood. “Those steps should not be an endless (nonexistent) ‘peace process’ but pressure on Israel to stop obstructing a state,” he said.
Despite mounting European support, both France and the UK have come under pressure from the United States to shelve their plans. British Foreign Officials had told Middle East Eye earlier this month that the US has cautioned them against formal recognition, pushing them to step back from any such commitments.
In a blatant show of disregard for international law, Israel announced plans to build 22 new settlements in the occupied West Bank in retaliation for the UK-France consideration to recognize Palestine. Defence Minister Israel Katz declared the expansion “a strategic move that prevents the establishment of a Palestinian state” — erasing the pretence of a two-state solution with an apartheid state.
Even as Israel carries out a livestreamed genocide against over two million Palestinians—deliberately starving them into famine—international efforts to recognize Palestinian statehood remain entangled in appeasement of Israeli demands. Since October 2023, Israel has killed at least 54,000 people—a conservative estimate that excludes tens of thousands buried under rubble, dismembered beyond recognition, or literally vaporized by its latest genocidal weapons.
